Art of attaching rubber heels



Se t. 3, 1929. .1. F. STANDISH I 1,726,594

ART OF ATTACHING RUBBER HEELS Filed Nov. 26, 1927 14 I8 "I .1515 m Patented Sept. 3, 1929.

UNITED STATES ,VPATENTII'OFFICE.

JOHN F. STANDISH, 0F WINTI-IROP, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO UNITED SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION, OF PATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

ART or ATTACHING RUBBER Hunts.

Application filed November 26, 1927. Serial No. 235,968.

This invention relates to the art of attaching heels and, particularly, rubberheels or composite heels having a rubber top section.

In the following specification and claims the term rubber heel is used in the sense in which it is commonly employed in the trade and it should be clearly understood that in no case is it to be construed 'as limited to a heel consisting only of real rubber, but that such heels are to be included as have the common characteristics of so-called rubber heels and may be made of rubber, rubber compositions, or other suitable compositions of an elastic, yielding, cushioning or resilient character.

Elastic cushion heels sometimes consist wholly of such a composition, as above described, but it is more common to combine a rubber top section with a substantially rigid base section made of-leather, leatherboard or other suitable material, heels of the type last referred to being called composite, heels. The present invention is applicable to both composite heels and heels made entirely of rubber or like material.

Many rubber heels are provided with washers, of a somewhat dished shape, em-

bedded in the body of the heel, the attaching nails being driven through the washers until the nail heads engage the washers. The purpose of the washers is to prevent the nail heads from pulling through the yielding material of the heel and permitting the heel to 0 b separated from the shoe. In the ordinary rubber heels of commerce the washers are, generally speaking, parallel to the tread surface of the heel and their dished portions serve to guide the pointsof the attaching nails through the holes which are provided in the centers of the washers. The tread surface of the heel is perforated by holes which are formed by the washer supporting pins in the mold in which the heel is vulcanized in the process of its manufacture. These pins are sustained in vertical positions in the face plate. of the mold and the pin holes in the tread face of the heel are, therefore, normal to said tread face. These pin holes in the heel also have a very material guiding effect upon the points of the attaching nails as they are driven from the nailin die of the heel nailing machine into and tirough the heel.

Ordinarily the attaching nails are driven in lines substantially perpendicular to the tread face of the heel and for obvious mechanical reasons it is desirable that the nail close to the edge of the heel that they are struck by the heel trimming cutter and the points of some nails even emerge from the sides of the shoe.

'This'difliculty can be overcome by so driving the attaching nails that they toe in somewhat, which means that they are driven in converging lines instead of in approximately parallellines; and it is the object of the present invention to provide both an improved method and improved apparatus for attaching rubber heels by the use of which the attaching nails will be driven convergently instead of parallel.

' With this object in view the invention, in

one aspect, consists in a method of rubber heel attaching comprising so deforming a portion of a rubber heel adjacent t-oa Washer therein as to cause the point of an attaching nail to be guided inward, away from the edge of the heel, and the nail to be driven in an inclined direction, even though the nail driving force is applied perpendicularly to the tread face of the heel. As is well known to those familiar with the art of rubber heel attaching, it is important that the heel be confined throughout during the nail driving operation and an important characteristic of the presentmethod is the application ,of deforming pressure in localized spots adja-' cent to the washers, the remainder of the heel being held confined in substantially its normal shape.

Preferably the tilting or toeing in of the nails is produced by applying localized pressure to portions of the tread face of the heel between the nail holes and the edge of the heel. This has the elfect of deforming those portions of the heel so that the washers are tilted and the holes assume somewhat inclined positions. With the heel deformed in this manner it is found that the attaching nails even though driven with parallel drivers, will toe in sufficiently to overcome the trouble hereinbefore explained.

In another aspect, the invention resides in heel attaching apparatus having, in combination, means for holding a heel and means for so deforming localized portions of the heel as to cause attaching nails to be guided through the heel at an inclination to the tread face thereof. I

In the illustrated embodiment of the invention the heel is confined in a holder or ring of a well-known type and a series of inwardly extending projections are provided which engage and are pressed into the marginal portion of the tread face of the heel. adjacent to the washers, causing the deformation already described, tilting the washers and so'inclining the nail holes that the points of the nails will be directed inward. Although the nail drivers in the machine need not necessarily be moved in parallel lines, it

is preferable for reasons of mechanical simplicity so to operate them and invention is to be recognized in the combination with a series of nail drivers movable in parallel lines, of means for so deforming localized portions of a rubber heel as to cause thenails driven by said drivers to converge.

The above and other features and advantagesof the invention will best be understood '.tll1d appreciated by reading the following detailed description of one manner of practicingthe method and of an apparatus embodying the invention with the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a heel holder embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view of the holder, a nailing die and nail drivers with work in position for operation thereon;

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view showing the parts at the end of the nail driving operation; and

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view of the work after it has been removed from the machine.

Referring now to the drawings, indicates the nailing die and 12 the nail drivers of a well-known commercial type of heel nailing machine in which mechanism is pro vided for reciprocating the drivers in parallel lines, perpendicular to the upper face of the nailing die, through nail and driver guiding holes which are drilled through the die. For a more complete disclosure'of such a machine reference may be had to United States Letters Patent No. 1,365,802, granted Jan. 18,

1921,0n application of the present inventor.

The heel holder herein illustrated is so designed that it may be readily substituted for the heel holding form or ring in the formv holder disclosed in the said patent.

, the shoe.

A plate 14 having a central opening of the size and shape of the heel to be operated upon is provided at its sides with ledges 16 adapted to be inserted in suitable guides 18 in the form holder of the heeling machine, whereby the plate 14 is accurately positioned and held indefinite relation to the nailing die 10.

The thickness of the plate 14 is substantially the same as that'of the rubber heel 20 which it is intended to attach. The under side of the plate 14 is recessed to a depth suflicient to accommodate a relatively thin plate 22 which is attached to the plate 14 by screws 24, as shown in Fig.1.

The plate 22 has a heel shaped opening of the same size as, and in register with, the opening or heel cavity in the plate 14 and is provided with inwardly extending substantially radial teeth or projections 26 which are located adjacent to the nail holes in the heel 20. The projections 26 preferably terminate at or near the outer sides of the nail holes in the heel and, consequently, about in line with the outer portions of the heel washers 28.

When the parts of the work are positioned in the machine, as shown in Fig. 2, wherein a lasted shoe is represented at 30 and a heel base at 32 and the machine operates to apply pressure, the teeth or projections 26 are pressed into the tread face of the rubber heel 20, causing localized deformations of portions 34 of the heel, resulting in tilting the washers 28 as shown in Figs. 2 and 3 and tilting the nail holes in the heel into inclined positions, as illustrated.

With the work in this condition the nail drivers 12 are operated and the nails 36 are driven.

. By reason of the tilting of the washers and the inclination of the nail holes the points of the nails as they enter the heel are deflected and guided inward sufiiciently to cause the nails to continue to converge as they are driven through the heel and into When the nails are completely driven they are toed in, as shown in Fig. 3, sufficiently to avoid any possibility of their points emerging from the side of the shoe or the nails being struck by the heel trimming cutter in the subsequent operation of trimming the heel. j

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new .and desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the'United States is 1. That step in a method of attaching a rubber heel to a shoe which consists in so deforming a portion of the heel adjacent to a washer therein as to cause the point of an attaching nail to be guided inward, away from the edge of the heel.

2. The method of attaching a rubber heel to a shoe which consists in so deforming portions of the heel adjacent to the Washers therein as to cause the points of attaching nails to be guided inward, away from the edge of the heel, and then driving attaching nails through the washers into the shoe while said portions of the heel are held so deformed.

The method of attaching a rubber heel .to a shoe which consists in applying deforming pressure to a heel. in localized spots adjacent to the Washers therein, holding the remainder of the heel confined in substantially its normal shape, and driving attaching nails through the washers into the shoe while the heel is deformed and confined as described.

4. The method of attaching a rubber heel to a shoe which consists in tilting the Washers and the nail holes in the heel and then driving attaching nails convergently through the tilted nail holes and Washers into the shoe.

5. The method of attaching a rubber'heel to a shoe which consists in tilting the washers and the nail holes in the heel and then driving attaching nails convergently through the tilted nail holes and washers by driving force applied to the nails in parallel lines.

6. Apparatus for attaching rubber heels having, in combination, means for holding a heel and means for so deforming localized portions of the heel as to cause attaching nails to be guided through the heel at an inclination to the tread face thereof.

7 In apparatus for attaching a rubber heel to a shoe, the combination of means for so deforming portions of the heel adjacent to the washers therein as to cause the points of attaching nails to be guided inward, away from the edge of the heel, and means for driving attaching nails through the Washers the combinationof a series of nail drivers movable in parallel lines, and means for holding a heel and sodeforming localized portions thereof as to cause nails driven through the heel by said drivers to converge.

10. In apparatus for attaching rubber heels, the combination of a nail driver movable in a straight line, and means for holding a heel and so deforming a localized portion thereof as to cause a nail driven through the heel by said driver to diverge from said straight line.

11. A holder for rubber heels comprising a plate of substantially the same thickness as a heel, having therethrough a cavity of the same size and shape as the heel, and a plurality of teeth extending substantially radially into said cavity.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name.

JOHN F. STANDISH. 

